deck prism skylight

Brooklyn, New York
Completed 2024

On the top floor of a Brooklyn townhouse, there was a cozy den with with no windows, but the potential for a skylight. A new skylight could be anything…

The design for this skylight fixture was inspired by a singular deck prism — a curio on display in the owner’s home. Deck prisms are fantastic objects that were used historically used to allow sunlight into the lower decks of ships and sidewalk basements before the invention of artificial lighting.

We referenced old catalogs selling deck prisms for utilitarian uses, and we studied the models with multiple prisms set in brass frames in particular. We designed a solid wood base with hexagonal shaped voids for the cast glass prisms to rest in bronze housings.

We worked with the Mystic Seaport Museum Store to source the deck prisms. All twenty-two prisms were cast at the seaport for this project. Jim Case fabricated the mold patterns and wood base, and the Mystic River Foundry cast the bronze housings. It was a memorable collaboration between designers and makers.

General Contractor :
Turn Key Design & Construction Inc